Cho Den-O: The day Den-O as a franchise died this was at one point the worst superhero movie I ever saw and while it's not that anymore(That (Dis)honor goes to Suicide Squad(The first one the second one is probably the most improved sequel I've seen)) it's still awful

that's the the only reason why it's not as bad as episode yellow or the first one

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER THE MOVIE: CHO-DEN-O TRILOGY
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EPISODE BLUE - "THE DISPATCHED IMAGIN IS NEWTRAL”

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This is the second time I've started writing this piece. I was a few paragraphs in, and I just wasn't into where things were going. It was mean, and it lacked much elaboration. I don't think it was very insightful, or even fair. It was mostly just four paragraphs of me talking about how much I hated this movie, and how soul-deadening it was to watch it.

And, god, it was that! You almost got no write-up for Episode Blue because I found the entire experience to be absolutely devoid of happiness. (Even now, I'm like, No, There Must've Been Something Good. I literally can't think of anything! At all!) I had to take about seven breaks from watching this movie. Every ten minutes I'd get so bored I'd look for distractions. Recounting it was like recounting an incredibly long line you stood in. Joyless.

But I don't... I don't find any value in just screaming I Hated This, even if I hated it. So, I don't know. Let's see if we can talk about this movie objectively. Try to get at its failures.

Which, there are plenty. Structurally, this thing is wafer thin. If this story had been cut down to the length of a single Den-O TV episode, I'd've still wanted to pad it out with a Yuuto subplot or a Naomi runner. The core idea, that Kotaro and Rinko From Wizard need to learn a lesson in not taking people for granted, is obvious from the jump. Owner might as well have said it out loud in the first act, since it's zero percent subtle, and him withholding it just makes him seem like a prick. (He is emotionally torturing the entire team! I don't think Hana or Momo or Ryotaro needed to learn a lesson!) Same thing for the Rinko From Wizard doppelganger, who doesn't need to act nearly as menacing and psychotic as she does in the first half of this story. The motivations are telegraphed a mile out, and the twists are so minor that I'm not sure they count as twists. They're, like, curves. Plot curves.

And besides a contract holder plot that's obvious and sort of mean (so, Grandma just forces the real Rinko From Wizard to play tennis until she collapses for fun or something? And makes Rinko From Wizard think she's going to get replaced by a monster? This is... why is she treating her granddaughter so horribly? I would probably want to hang out with my friends instead, too!), there's the weird reliance on Teddy and Kotaro's relationship, which feels like a huge miscalculation... despite being this movie's only reason for existing.

I think I hate New Den-O? I feel like I gave him a shot, but I really disliked him in this movie. The actor is... hoo boy. Zero charisma. And the conception of the character of Kotaro is still, like, Worse Yuuto? It's Yuuto's horrible attitude and refusal to open up, but without the particular bratty twist that Yuuto put on it? Yuuto always came off as sort of pathetic, in his childishness. He was pitiable. With Kotaro, it just comes off as him being a snotty jerk. The plot of the movie is to get both Kotaro and Teddy to the point where they're open about their need for one another, but that means that we get an entire movie of Kotaro turning his back on Teddy. It's another whole movie of Kotaro being withdrawn and mopey, and the actor not finding a single interesting note to it. He just, like, sucks. He's the least interesting character in this story, and it's his goddamn story.

Teddy... I mean, he's just a less interesting version of Deneb. Same as above. The whole Kotaro/Teddy dynamic is like (I don't like saying this, but it's the only way to explain it) Inoue trying to create Yuuto/Deneb. It's there in the broad strokes, but everything inside is undercooked, unappetizing. It's a Worse Yuuto, and a Dull Deneb.

I feel like I've already gone back on my desire for this post to not just be me complaining about this movie. I can't help it, though. I hated this movie so much. It's bereft of quality. It's an exhausting slog through an obvious story with terrible characters. If it was twenty minutes long, it'd be ten minutes too long. Watching this movie made me wonder if I ever liked Den-O at all. I wish I hadn't watched it, and I wish I hadn't written about it.

Also, WHY WAS SIEG IN THIS MOVIE!!!!!

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Man I misremembered the hell out of this film and Teddy/Kotaro's relationship.

Edit: this was also one of the very first kamen rider things I watched.

Their relationship is a charmless, aggravating version of Yuuto and Deneb's relationship. I am honestly getting mad just remembering it.

*hugs?*
I mostly remember it for teddy now thinking about it. He fills a character type I like, the reserved/quiet butler. I actually could not remember much about Kotoro other then he's smug but unlucky. So uh yeaaaasah.

And even--

(deep, bitter, sigh)

--even that's just all cobbled together from other, better characters? Kotaro's unlucky streak is something he inherited for Ryotaro, which means we got a funnier version of it back in the main series. (There's a gag/"gag" in this movie, where Kotaro keeps getting hit in the back of the head with soccer balls, and it's just a lesser version of a longer, better gag from the TV show. And this one ends with Kotaro getting pooped on by a bird, which is... man, is that the best Kobayashi's got at this point in the franchise?) Teddy's the quiet, reserved, deferential butler (and I like Teddy okay!), and it's all in service to a grumpy, prideful boy. But it's not funny or fresh, like that dynamic was with Yuuto and Deneb.

I just... I just find Kotaro (and Teddy, to a lesser extent) to be a sad reminder of earlier, better characters, which is richly ironic after the last movie's Airi/Yuuto storyline.

This makes me think, characters like tsukasa, tendou, and sento are all prideful but flawed, but dont irk you like this. So I'm guessing the grumpiness and lack of respect towards others are the bigger reasons for not liking him.

I think, I think the most apt comparison I can make to Kotoro is Gou from Drive (and a character from saber). They're both show offs who are actually using that confidence to cover up for their feelings of inadquecy (and hate/guilt in Gou's case). I feel like early Gou pulls off that confidence better because he feels more human/kind, while still kind of being a shit. I dont know, what do y'all think?

I mean, it's really two things at work: a mediocre actor and diminishing returns.

Kotaro's actor is incredibly light on charisma. Nothing about his performance gets you on his side. There's a way to play the part that differentiates it from Yuuto, but this guy just plays it as off-puttingly as possible. There's none of Yuuto's barely-concealed sadness, or Original Ryotaro's boundless empathy. There's just this Legacy Rider, some kid who expects the world to revolve around him because Do You Know Who My Family Is, and we keep getting these stories where he learns to be less of a self-involved twerp.

Which is the other thing, that we are on our third story with New Den-O and it's another story where Kotaro learns to be less self-involved. And that's on top of how inessential this story is to begin with, how little it bothers to connect dots or utilize its cast (SIEG) or feel like it belongs alongside one of the most revered Kamen Rider series of all time. Everything in this movie feels exhausted, and Kotaro is both a victim and a symptom of it.

That's like asking why Neil Patrick Harris is in every Harold & Kumar movie. :lolol

It still weirds me out so much that you joined this forum to vent your frustrations with Ghost, and yet somehow Den-O seems to have wound up being the series we're most frequently at odds about. Because, uh, yeah, this one is actually my favorite of this little trilogy? And also I just plain like New Den-O a lot (partially as a consequence of Den-O & Decade being my first Den-O thing), so that probably helps? I don't have some grand rebuttal prepared here, but I've always genuinely enjoyed how straightforward it is, and I definitely felt more endeared to Koutarou and Teddy as a duo after seeing it.

Shame it didn't work as well for you, Die, but I guess this is just the price I have to pay for that glowing praise of Episode Red. :p

And, honestly, that's fine. I don't know if loving or hating this one can be litigated or refuted. It's very personal preference, maybe even more than usual? If you have more fondness for Kotaro/the actor who plays Kotaro than I do (which is the only possibility!), or if story didn't feel as drawn out, then you're bound to have a better experience with it. I don't begrudge anyone having more positive feelings about this one than I did.

I hated these three movies as a whole for being a horrible attempt at trying to milk the show dry when it was already a mummified corpse. Horrible, just horrible. That said New Den-O's Double Action is one of my favorite renditions.

And that's fine, too!

I feel... I feel like the whole Why Are They Making More Den-O aspect of this trilogy (where the third one stars Diend of all people, review coming this Thursday or Friday) is sorting people pretty quickly into the Liked or Hated piles. If you're okay with Den-O as an endless series of follow-up projects, or if you came in during the period when it was an endless series of follow-up projects? I don't know if these films are that bad. Certainly, the idea of More Yuuto worked gangbusters for me, even as other fans got their fill of his doomed romance (with Airi, to be clear) back in the TV series.

So, yeah, I think my ability to find value in these stories largely depends on them feeling vital in some way. Yuuto and Airi? Vital! That story definitely benefited from a few extra beats! But Kotaro, to me, just never feels vital to the story, especially since Young Ryotaro is now a permanent member of the cast.

It's the intent that I hated than the actual movies so fear not, I'm not dogging on the stories. It was just sad to see that this is how the show peters out and aside from the occasional cameos years later, they now got the Taros reduced to mascots for some tourist attraction in Kyoto and some random flash animation looking clips after these movies.

I've always like New Den-O, but... but I could not tell you why.

I did at some point literally count him as one of my favourite Riders and one of the few I'd want a Seihou SHF of. Something about him drew me to him, which is weird, because... because basically all his starring roles have been anywhere from forgettable to didn't-like for me in retrospect, when I actually think about it? And this review is very much making me come to terms with that because I agree with just about every word said! I didn't hate it quite as much, I wouldn't even class it as one of my 10 least favourite rider movies or anywhere near that as much as I'd say it was middling; but nothing about it compelled me and some of the stuff with that one-off family was just a bit weird, yeah! It's essentially a boring do-over of New Den-O's first outing, and...

and... why do I like this guy? Is it just in concept? Is it because he has a sick design? Is it because I like future riders? Because OOO/Den-O was one of my first Rider movies and I thought he was Den-O's actor and final form at the time and to this day it's one of my favourite Rider movies? ... maybe a combination of all four? Is this just me venting at this point? I have so many questions!

This is just not a great movie, and not even one I like, and yet. "I Like New Den-O" is so ingrained in my mind when there's nothing about him I like or nothing special about him. My mind is doing loops tonight

For me it was the JJBA aspect of it. And the suit was a nice retool utilizing bits of Climax and Liner. And Teddy is Jotaro before being actual Jotaro. :lolol

Of these two movies, I remember Episode Red a lot more, and not just because it has such a beautifully convoluted subtitle. I was really invested in the Yuuto and Airi romance back when I first watched this, even though I have no idea why after rewatching the show. It was still nice of this film to give us some closure for that storyline, as well as a final star-gazing snuggle flashback (I think; haven't seen this film in years).

Episode Blue is definitely a movie that I saw. I know this intellectually, even though I remember pretty much nothing about it. On the subject of New Den-O, I always feel like he was kind of an aborted concept that stuck around a little bit past the point where he was scrapped. I suspect that the idea was to have him come in and replace Ryotaro as the main Den-O protagonist, but then someone at Toei said "Wait, what if we just use the kid from the first movie?" and they ran with that instead.

I plan to rewatch Episode Blue and Yellow together this weekend, so I totally look forward to giving my full thoughts later. For now, the abridged version of my thoughts for Episode Blue is that I agree with Fish that it's the best of the Chou Den-O Trilogy and I agree with Kurona that New Den-O is generally good.

I had also planned to finally start watching Blade this weekend, in my quest to finish the Heisei Era. It's going to be a full schedule!

Not entirely what I was trying to get across :lol

Still true though!

Between my meh reception of Final Countdown and Ryoutarou continuing to be present in the Chou Den-O Series in his de-aged form, I think it's easy to feel like New Den-O is always being overshadowed by other things, especially with him being rendered a hostage plot device in Chou Den-O & Decade. But everything else about him, the sweet design, counting gimmick, the dynamic between Koutarou and Teddy, it's almost enough to compensate for his irrelevance to whatever story he's in. He's like Mihara, but cooler, I guess is how I would summarize.

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER THE MOVIE: CHO-DEN-O TRILOGY
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EPISODE YELLOW - "TREASURE DE END PIRATES”

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Fun Diend movie!

I keep going back and forth on how this worked as a Den-O movie, though. It's got all the trappings: the cast, the time travel (...ish), how the past can become a weight on the future, a climactic and largely irrelevant rice battle, etc. It's pretty thorough on the Den-O aesthetics.

It's just, it's 100% a Diend story. That actor has a way of warping stories just by sheer charisma. He's like Nega New Den-O, where his mere existence gets you invested in his schemes and stratagems, rather than confused and irritated by his presence. (YMMV!) It's Kaitou's story, and the Den-O characters are just along for the ride.

Probably no surprise that this one turned out great, considering that a) it's written by the guy who did the Hibiki arc on Decade, a.k.a. The Best Kaitou Story, and b) it gains a lot of its power from hitting that story's beats. (No, uh, pun intended.) It's a fun heist story where Kaitou makes a bunch of people's lives miserable in pursuit of a rare trinket... and some small kindness that can assuage his flatly-denied guilty conscience.

It's sort of fascinating, to see Kaitou back in that Reluctant Hero role. His entire motivation here is that he accidentally robbed a young boy of the emotional closure needed to stop resenting an absent mother, and he goes to INSANE lengths to rectify that mistake. He makes a deal with an Imagin to draw out Den-O. He somehow makes his way to the past, just in time to grab Sword Form's predictably-discarded DenPass. (I love that a huge plot point rests on Den-O always throwing away the very important DenPass, almost as much as I hate how lazy it is that Kaitou can suddenly time travel now.) He hijacks the DenLiner, multiple times. He tries to murder himself in the past. It's all incredibly convoluted, and it's all just so he can fix this one kid's life that he accidentally ruined.

Which, I like that! I like a Kaitou who will spend the entire movie being a frustrating asshole, telling everyone he manipulates that Feelings Are Dumb, while he would literally kill himself to get this kid to stop hating his own mother. I like it because it's what the Phase 2 of Diend's story could've been. It's Tsukasa's influence, and you can tell. This isn't something Kaitou decided to do until after he joined Team Decade, and it's not something he's doing to get Reiji off of his back. He just, y'know, felt guilty! And so he stole a time train at gunpoint!

And this is the only character that can get away with being so frustratingly opaque and resolutely uncooperative. He's so damn charismatic that you can buy Urataros (who can see the squishy feelings inside the most dismissive of liars) and Ryotaro (who just innately believes in people) being willing to help Kaitou. He's someone who can spend an hour as a selfish thief, but you're still able to say But Maybe He's A Good Guy. I can't ever stay that mad at Kaitou, and neither can the narrative.

It's a solid story, too. The idea of a Den-O "cops and robbers” story that mostly revolves around the danger of strict adherence to rules in the face of mitigating circumstances is a pretty fun one to tell. Reiji always comes off as a vengeful goon, which helps refocus Kaitou's scheming as the lesser of two evils. Den-O as a series always saw value in judging individual situations without bias, and it's nice to see those values carry over into this movie. It's a story that largely rejects things like Rules and Justice in favor of holistic solutions and personal responsibility. It definitely flatters Kaitou's view of the world!

This is the last little bit of Den-O I'm going to have for a while (I think Pretty Den-O will land in the space between Zi-O and Zero-One, unless anyone can think of a reason not to), and it's funny to see it finally figure out a way forward for the franchise just as it's about to run out of track: as perennial guest stars. This movie works great because it tells a Diend story in a Den-O language. It's not even vaguely interested in pushing forward Ryotaro's story, or Momo's story, or whatever. All of the Den-O cast is there to help support Kaitou's journey, and that's great. Den-O's cast... I mean, what the hell is there left to learn about them? They've had 49 TV episodes, 7 movies, countless specials and short films... their story is over. Having them star in anything is just... why? But having them show up to provide a comedic bedrock for someone else's time-traveling journey towards a life with less regrets? That's pretty much ideal.

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THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Ha ha, I just remembered I used to do these for Den-O episodes! WHOOPS.

-Diend Complete being powered entirely by Movie-Only characters is... a choice! It's cute, but it doesn't have nearly the visual impact of Decade Complete's collection of Final Forms. Like, G4? Okay, sure.

-Absolutely unclear why the Time Police had a Diend-themed K-Touch (complete with a carrying case emblazoned with Diend's logo!), but that can get filed alongside a bunch of other things under the heading Best Not To Think About. I am not entirely sure that this story fits comfortably between Kaitou's Missing Ace backstory and where we find him in Decade Episode 9. Maybe! Feels like a tough fit, though.

-I liked Kamen Rider Den-Officer's suit! Reminds me a bit of the Space Sheriff design, which helped subconsciously sell it as a Cop Rider.

-The Station Master Vs Owner contest at the end is, as Momotaros is infuriated by, the flimsiest bit of nonsense that could be used to pad out this thing's runtime (story ends about two-thirds of the way through), but I also completely don't care. It's terrific. Of all the fan-servicey callbacks this post-series contest has dredged up, I will never get sick or the Station Master Vs Owner rivalry. NEVER.

-Naomi peeling off her own skin to reveal Kaitou underneath is some of the most horrifying imagery I've ever experienced in tokusatsu, or possibly all of media. Cannot believe this movie was aimed at children.

Diend shoving his way into a Den-O movie trilogy and (through virtue of All Riders not having an exclusive Rider) having his series' "movie/dark rider" be a Den-O rider who's a cop is... it's so perfectly Decade and so perfectly Den-O that there is zero room to complain about that. It's kind of beautiful? If anything I'm ashamed of the franchise to not have Cop Den-O show up whenever Decade needs some dark nemesis pulled out of the ever-present Shocker Revival Portal to fight

In fact the only complaint I really have here is that outside of Complete, Diend's only summons are the Riotroopers! Have a bit of fun with it; lean into Den-O's comedic antics by summoning guys like Scissors and Garren, or even summon Zeronos to make every single character involved extremely confused about everything.

But ah well. Minor nitpick! This is just a fun, solid movie and the only reason I'm going on about these outside observations is that you said basically everything else I could have. Just... yeah, good Diend movie! Not what I expected from the final instalment of Den-O until Kobayashi next wrote a Rider show, but I'll happily take it!

My first-ever Den-O full cast experience was with that OOO movie, and that's the next Den-O thing I'll watch, and that realization kind of blew my mind? I had this very weird feeling of, like, closing a loop as I watched the final third of this movie. Like I was on this long, winding journey with Den-O, and it's about to reach its conclusion. Made me... I don't know, a little melancholy? Strange feeling to have during a Diend story about catching up to your past as a more world-weary person who is also a little more empathetic to the world of Den-O, but-- oh. OH.

(Also, my first-ever Den-O anything was a Momo appearance in an Ex-Aid movie, but I didn't understand his significance at all. I didn't get the joke that he was the Pink in their Sentai team!)

(Also also, there are still some non-Pretty Den-O stories with these characters I haven't seen yet, so I guess I haven't yet closed that loop. It really felt like I did, though!)

There's an image that shows Den-O has turned up in some form every single year since it aired? Some of it's a stretch like legacy forms but they really do just never stop!

I'm very curious how you'll feel about Den-OOO especially this time around. It's one of my favourite pieces of Rider media ever with how much of a loving celebration it is; but it's so rooted in its unabashed love of the original Kamen Rider that I imagine it wasn't your cup of tea? Or maybe Imagin antics save it for you

Probably the most memorable and my favorite movie of the bunch. I love Daiki and really, him taking the lead role with the Den-O cast playing support was great to see.

Also while I would have possibly preferred secondary Riders, this gave me Skull again and I'll never get tired of seeing that suit even for brief periods of time.

damn i lost my bet on this one

Anyway, good movie! I wish I had had anywhere near as good a time watching Decade as I did watching this.

The main thing I remember about Den-OOO is seeing three heroes (well, two heroes and Ankh) get crucified in Kamen Rider Plaza, and I will always treasure that memory. That alone puts it in my Top 5 Kamen Rider things.

I definitely didn't care a lot about the Showa stuff, and I don't think that'll change in a month or so. But the movie itself is anchored by the cast and crew of The Best Kamen Rider Series, so I'm sure it'll be fun to revisit. Even with New Den-O in it!

I had a real brief moment of umbrage when I saw Skull, where I'm like SKULL IS PHASE 2 HEISEI WHAT THE HELL, but then I remembered that this movie is also Phase 2 Heisei.

Why in the world would you think I wouldn't like the Kaitou movie?! He's the best actor from Decade! As weird as it was to spend a third of a Den-O trilogy telling a story about a guy from another series -- and letting Yonemura write it -- this was a pretty agreeable movie. Not the dizzying highs of Red, or the staggering lows of Blue, but just, like, a fun movie to watch on a day off.

This is probably the film I remember best from this trilogy, primarily on the back of the really solid gag about Momotaros throwing the Denliner pass. I am always a sucker for a tokusatsu gag that pokes fun at some of the conventions of the genre.

The other, kind of sad thing, is that while Kamen Rider Den-O will return in, like, a lot of stuff, this is the final time we'll see the whole crew together. The Taros are good, but the human cast members start appearing more sporadically and some characters, like Kohana, are just gone after this point.

Would it maaaaybe help your not trucking with Showa if I told you that Rider crucifixions happen basically every 5 minutes in the 70s?

Yeah, I want to say that the later appearances I saw were fractions of the cast. Pretty sure Den-OOO was the Taros, Kotaro, Naomi, Owner, that was it. While it's a little sad they don't all get to keep showing up, maybe that's okay? It's ironic that they'd stop being a full team after the proof-of-concept of Episode Yellow, but, like, it's been two years. We got plenty! Actual Ryotaro shows back up in a decade! Momo eventually teams up with Zolda, and I am honestly thrilled to re-experience that movie in a few weeks!

But, yeah, still a little sad that they couldn't keep doing this every summer forever.

Other people have brought that up as a lure, but it's actually the opposite: stringing dudes up on crosses is way less cool if it happens too regularly. It's like... it's like eating Halloween candy. If you're eating a bunch of candy at the end of the October as a special treat, it's great! If you're eating candy everyday, it both ruins Halloween and could lead to diabetes.

I am saying that I need my crucifixions to be special, or I don't enjoy them. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Yeah, I’ll join the crowd that likes this movie. Considering how stale I thought the other two were, this one feels stronger purely based on how unique it is.

And also, when is P-Bandai getting round to the Diend K-Touch, considering how generous they’re currently being with unreleased items from older shows?

Hmm, well, now they've gone to the trouble of doing a CSM Decadriver 2.0 that includes the K-Touch; I can see where this is leading...

Somewhere in Japan, there is a voice actor shouting "SKULL! KAMEN RIDE: SKULL WITH A HAT!" and "BLOOD! KAMEN RIDE: JUST BLOOD!" into a microphone, wondering if anyone will listen to these clips...

So yeah, just in case this wasn't clear enough, I was talking about this movie there. Because, honestly, going back to Decade really did feel like solving the mystery of why the last big Den-O movie stars Diend of all people. Kobayashi doesn't want to do all three I guess -> Yonemura is the only other writer who's ever been trusted with Den-O -> Yonemura is in love with Kaitou now -> Diend V-Cinema in disguise.

You might even say Kaitou stole the show from the Den-Liner crew here.

This is a pretty fun flick, for sure. I recall it being my least favorite of the bunch on a first viewing, in large part due to a bit of apprehension about it being this weird impromptu crossover, but when I went back to it along with the rest of Den-O a couple years back, I was way more receptive. Again, I've come around to Kaitou a ton over the years, and having rewatched Decade itself now, I'll probably enjoy this movie even more the next time I get around to it.

I figured it was either this or Zi-O, since the odds of Diend showing up in, like, some random Reiwa movie seemed slim. Can you imagine Yonemura taking an unrelated franchise's movie and just using it to give a central role to Diend? Unfathomable.

Yeah, I think this was probably my second favorite of the three films. I'd maybe even consider it as good as Red, just in different ways. It's prioritizing a madcap energy for the bulk of the story, rather than letting you know right upfront that it's going to have some sadness in it.

Which, god, maybe puts Yellow ahead of Red for me? Probably not, Red is so good, the reviews back me up, but Yellow absolutely lands an out-of-nowhere emotional punch at the end that is really amazing.

I hope you find it as compelling as I did when you get back to it!

The G Den-O suit is a nice retool. I love how it is just monochrome with some added flare via red and blue siren-themed eyes. Almost Spare Sheriff-y in execution that it reminds me of Robo Rider from RX.

Sorry I'm late my last 3 weeks have been shit (things are looking up for me) Yellow was the point were if Cho Den-O was the day Den-O died then TOEI decided to zombify it other than Diend almost NOTHING about this works and the police screamed "we are out of ideas" also why is Diend Compelte form movie only villains shouldn't it be G3(TBF Gills is more in line with how Secondary Riders are since isn't he a corrupted version of Agito)/Knight/Kaixa/Garren(I was in the "Chalice is Blade's secondary rider" camp for a while)/Ibuki/Gattack/Zeronos/Ixa

Yeah, I got that same Space Sheriff vibe off of it. It's a pretty striking suit!

Oof! Sorry this one didn't work for you, but I'm glad to hear non-Rider things are looking better these days.

I can sort of see why Diend Complete is movie villains instead of Secondary Final Forms. First, most secondaries don't really have Final Forms? Ibuki doesn't, Gatack basically doesn't, Kaixa doesn't (unless a handful of sand is going to get Diend out of a fight), etc etc etc. Second, it's a little funny that Diend gets a new form in a movie, and that form is made of other movie-only suits. That's a halfway decent gag. Finally... I don't know, it's in one scene. I'm okay letting Yonemura have this one.

Kaixa has the best ultimate form (for real Kusaka's a BIG reason I don't like 555) for real I do feel like it's worth pointing out he was planned at one point to have an ultimate form